Fake Property Photos Are Flooding Geelong's Rental Market, and Local Renters Are Paying the Price

Renters in Geelong are increasingly signing leases on properties that look nothing like their online listings, as duplicate and digitally altered images circulate across major rental platforms, a problem housing advocates say has worsened sharply since the city's vacancy rate dropped below two per cent in early 2025. The practice, known broadly as duplicate image replacement, involves reusing photographs from other properties or using image-editing tools to obscure damage, dated fixtures or substandard conditions before a listing goes live.

The timing matters. Geelong's rental market has been under sustained pressure from population growth tied to the Geelong City Deal, Deakin University's expanding enrolment base, and ongoing housing development along the Surf Coast corridor. Prospective tenants, many of them students, healthcare workers and tradespeople relocating for work, are frequently inspecting properties remotely or making decisions quickly in a competitive market. That desperation is precisely the environment in which misleading imagery does the most damage.

Where the Problem Is Showing Up

Suburb-level complaints have been concentrated in Norlane, Corio and parts of the Belmont corridor, where older housing stock is being cycled through the rental market at elevated prices. Consumer Affairs Victoria received a notable uptick in image-related rental complaints from the Barwon region across the 2024-25 financial year, though the agency has not publicly released suburb-by-suburb breakdowns for Geelong specifically. Renters in these areas describe arriving at inspections on Separation Street or around the Norlane shopping precinct to find interiors that bear little resemblance to the polished photographs used to market them online.

Deakin University's Geelong Waterfront Campus has a particular stake in this issue. Each semester, hundreds of interstate and international students seek accommodation near the campus on Gheringhap Street, often booking sight-unseen from interstate or overseas. The university's student services team has flagged rental imagery concerns in its housing guidance materials, though the institution has not made a public statement about the scale of the problem. The Geelong Community Legal Centre on Moorabool Street provides tenancy advice and has seen a steady flow of clients seeking help after discovering a property did not match its advertised condition.

What the Rules Actually Require

Under the Australian Consumer Law, presenting a materially misleading image in a commercial transaction, including a rental listing, can constitute a breach of consumer protection provisions. The Residential Tenancies Act 1997 in Victoria also requires landlords and agents to disclose material facts about a property's condition. In practice, enforcement is patchy. Tenants who discover discrepancies on moving day face the prospect of either accepting the property or forfeiting application fees and starting over in a market where suitable listings in Geelong's inner suburbs routinely attract more than 30 enquiries within 48 hours of going live.

Real estate industry bodies have encouraged agencies to adopt image-verification practices, and some larger Geelong-based property management firms have moved toward mandatory timestamped photography taken within 30 days of a listing being published. Whether smaller independent agencies follow suit depends largely on whether Consumer Affairs Victoria presses the issue more actively with the sector.

For residents navigating the market right now, the most practical step is to request a statutory condition report before signing anything and, where possible, attend an in-person or video-call walkthrough rather than relying on listing photographs alone. Tenants who believe they have been misled by a listing can lodge a complaint directly with Consumer Affairs Victoria online or visit the Geelong Community Legal Centre, which operates a free duty lawyer service on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Rental listings on Domain and realestate.com.au also carry a reporting function for flagging suspected misleading content, a tool that remains underused despite the complaints flowing into advocacy services across the Barwon region.